radium therapy
- noun
- /ˈreɪdiəm ˈθɛrəpi/
- Archaic
:
terapia con radio
- In the early 20th century, radium therapy was widely used before safer alternatives became available.
Examples
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Doctors no longer recommend radium therapy due to concerns about radiation exposure.
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After being diagnosed with cancer, she underwent radium therapy as part of her treatment plan.
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Many patients underwent radium therapy in the early 20th century.
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Is radium therapy still used today?
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After being diagnosed with cancer, she underwent radium therapy as part of her treatment plan.
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Doctors no longer recommend radium therapy due to concerns about radiation exposure.
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In the early 20th century, radium therapy was widely used before safer alternatives became available.
Synonyms
87
3.7
Treatment that uses strong rays to kill cancer cells
7
3.9
A treatment that uses strong beams of energy to kill cancer cells
6
7.7
To expose something to radiation for medical treatment or testing
2
4.4
Treatment that uses strong rays to destroy cancer cells
1
6.0
A treatment that uses focused beams of radiation to destroy tumors without cutting the body
1
8.1
A cancer treatment that puts radioactive material inside or next to a tumor
A cancer treatment that uses radiation from radium to treat tumours
To treat disease by exposing the body to radiation, often for cancer
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'radium' (a radioactive element) + 'therapy' (medical treatment): it literally denotes a treatment that uses radium. The pattern 'X therapy' is a common, cross-linguistic way to name medical treatments, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Radium therapy comes from the old medical practice of using the glowing metal radium as a source of invisible rays, and therapy means 'treatment'. Doctors once put radium near cancer to try to kill it, so the phrase means a medical 'treatment' that used radium, though it is now rarely used because the rays can be dangerous.